ABUSED. Chapter 22.

I got my answer a couple of hours later. It was past 6am, after we had eaten sahur when another call came in and this time, it was Kayode’s mum. She didn’t even allow me to say anything before ordering me to come to their family’s place.

“There’s no problem at all, I just need to see you. Shebi egbon e o ni soro?” she asked

“Rara ma.” I said even through my heart was in my throat. A million possibilities of what could be happening was running through my mind as I just looked for a small hijab I hadn’t used in a long time, put my purse and phone inside a side bag and hastily left the house.

“Aunty Mariam mo fe sare jade,” I screamed at my aunt unsure of whether she heard or not but I didn’t even wait to find out. Blood already drained from my face and my mouth was so dry I had trouble swallowing. I climbed the first bike I saw and just told him to keep going. We were already halfway before I remembered that I didn’t have a dime in my purse but thanked God that I had my ATM card in my purse. We stopped at a bank and I pressed the wrong pin twice because my hands just wouldn’t stop shaking.

‘Did he try to kill himself?’ I thought and my heart went into another overdrive. I didn’t want him to die just because I was being too difficult. After about 30minutes, I got to my destination and dashed into their house.

“Where is he?” I yelled. His mother and siblings looked at me in a weird way and I realised how strange I must have been. I then noticed that the whole family was present, even one of his cousins and his closest friend I knew he treated like a brother.

“Relax,” his mother said and I relaxed but the tension still wasn’t completely gone. She didn’t seem concerned or sad but I somehow didn’t like her lackadaisical attitude. Where was Kayode and what was happening?

“Please I want to see him,” I paced up and down the living room, not giving a damn about how crazy I looked. His mother told me to sit down and I settled on the couch, my mind still at unrest and desperately trying to figure out what has happening.

“He tried to drink hypo this morning.” My heart dropped in my stomach and I literally went as white as a sheet. “I wanted to go and wake him up for saari but I noticed that he wasn’t answering the knocks or open the door. The door was locked from behind, so I tried to force it open. Mo shaa lo pe daddy. Awon ni won ja ilekun. We met him clutching his stomach with an unfinished bottle of hypo on the floor.”

“I want to see him,” I demanded.

I rushed down the corridor and when I got to the door of his old room, I didn’t hesitate for a moment before opening the door and ran towards the bed. Kayode looked so weak in his bed and I drip was stuck to his arm. I concluded that his parents probably didn’t want to make a big show of what happened since it wasn’t too bad and everything was under control.

“Jumoke,” he croaked with dull eyes which lit up when I entered the room.

I couldn’t hold back the tears. “Subhanallah! Kayode what did you do?”

 I broke down into tears at the foot of his bed and buried my face in my hands. I prayed that he would be okay and desperately begged God to forgive me for turning my back on him. He stroked my hair. “Don’t cry, baby. The doctor said I would be alright.”

I rose my head and looked at him with that I hoped was a vicious glare. “Why? You should know how crazy it is to drink that shit.” Another sob escaped my throat and I wanted to hold him badly.

He looked ashamed and stared at the bed sheet. “I told you I couldn’t go on living without you.”

He continued to stroke my hair like old times while I wept. I never intended for any of this to happen. At that moment, I hated Damola, my uncle, Aunty Mariam and Temilade for even making me think of leaving Kayode in the first place. Everything Temilade told me about her last relationship and the effect it left on her were long forgotten. I wasn’t sure of how long I cried and blamed myself for what happened but when I stopped, I started watching him with renewed love. What happened for the last two weeks was enough wake up call for us. It was time to finally give him another chance and go home. I took out my long forgotten phone out of my handbag and saw that I had 5 missed calls already. Three from home, two from Damola. I called him back and he answered on the third ring.

“Yo wassup!” he sang over the phone and I almost smiled at how cheerful he sounded at the moment.

“I’m alright o…hmmmm,” I went on to explain everything that happened that morning to him, from the emergency call to the state Kayode was in.

There was silence at the other end for a very long time before Dammy finally broke the silence with a deep sigh. “I’m not his doctor but I can tell you that if he really took hypo, he probably won’t even be conscious yet. Do you know how powerful that thing is?”

“What…” he didn’t even let me finish before he continued and I got very irritated by his seemingly uncaring attitude.

“What I’m saying is that if he really took hypo, they would have needed to take him to the hospital to have his stomach pumped and fluids passed into his body to avoid any problems.”

I was really angry and pissed with that statement. “What are you trying to say?”

“What I’m trying to tell you is that this is all some big ploy and game he’s playing with you. I understand that he stooped low but involving his parents and giving a suicide scare? That’s the lowest low. He’s trying to manipulate you to come back to him.”

That was ridiculous- no one would go through that much stress to get back one girlfriend with the number of girls in Lagos. “I don’t believe you,” I said and the next thing was the beep tone that signified the end of the call.

I didn’t change my mind and that proved to be the fifth and final mistake of my futile attempt to break free of him. Since I had no job to go to anymore, I didn’t leave their house for two days and his mum was very welcoming. Even though there wasn’t a lot of talking between Kayode and I, I felt whole again and I was very sure things would be very different from that time onwards. We both went through hell and back and that has taught us to cherish what we have but just as so many times before, I couldn’t have been more wrong about the signs.

We got back together but I didn’t move in with him again. Ramadan was very good and on itunu awe day, I spent half the day with my family, called my parents and was fully happy at how complete my life was. My uncle still hated that I went back to the ‘omo radarada’ but he didn’t want to press it because he didn’t want to chase me further away from him. His wife was very changed though, like a total 360 degrees change. I learn to ignore her silent treatment and even joked with her a few times, which she answered with stiff smiles. I spent the other half of the festival with his family and I was very relaxed and felt like I belonged to the family.

We had an extended honeymoon phase- he was very understanding, caring and completely caring. He even started entering my uncle’s house again, much to the displeasure of uncle and his wife but he never gave up. He begged them but I knew they didn’t forgive him; especially Aunty Mariam who knew about the whole abuse saga. We started having a wonderful time again and by the end of August, things were finally perfect. I

I started searching for a job even though Kayode was giving me enough money to sustain me all the time and kept spoiling me with gifts and attention. I attended a few job interviews but was turned down; however, that didn’t deter me from having high hopes about how well my life was turning out.  We travelled to his home town in September, for Ileya and I don’t want to share every tiny detail but I remember loving him more than I ever did- he had finally turned into the prince charming I had been searching for all along. He fulfilled my every wish and fussed over me- nothing was too much or too less. I was his queen and he showed me how much he appreciated me in his life. Sex was great, the future bright and rosy. I couldn’t even see one dark cloud on the horizon.

On September 17^th, we went for a late night date and as usual, he bought me a new dress to wear and claimed that it was a special occasion. I didn’t have a problem with him choosing my clothes anymore as his fashion sense was even a lot better than mine. We got to our usual restaurant at Ikeja and I noticed a few people stopped what they were doing to stare at us. I thought we looked that good and at that moment, what mattered was the man that had his arms around me.

We ate, drank and held light conversation until when we were about to leave that he knelt at the side of the table and looked me in the eye. I thought he dropped something and expected him to pick it up but he never did. I looked down at him and he smiled with so much love.

“I love you Olajumoke. You know I’m not so good with poetry, so I’ll save you the emotional stress of listening to my poorly constructed poetry. I’ve never met a better woman and if there’s one thing I’m sure of most in my life, it’s that I want you in my life forever. I want you today; tomorrow and will still do till the end of the world. I want you to give me beautiful kids and make me the happiest man that ever lived. Will you marry me?”

I was stunned and when I looked around, I noticed that everyone was looking at us. I hadn’t expected that at all even though despite our ups and downs, we had been together for a little over 2 years. In the end, I thought of how perfect we had been together and accepted the ring. The ring was a diamond crusted beauty and it was obvious that it must have cost him a fortune. It fitted perfectly on my finger and the level of fulfilment it brought me could not even be described- all I wanted was to spend the rest of my life with the man I loved even though at that moment, I didn’t think of how unsafe my life was in his hands. He was so happy that he carried me up and spun me around, earning claps from our spectators.

We settled back into the same routine that we had been before everything went dark. I started leaving some of my stuffs back in the apartment we shared and it was starting to feel like home again. Kayode and I were doing great. He was loving and even helped me with a few job opportunities. He was not as bossy as before and we were just like any loving couple. I never removed my ring as it gave him an odd sense of pride anytime he saw it on my finger.

Damola and I still talk on phone like once in a week and even the calls were brief and impersonal. I knew we already fell apart and he was disappointed in my choice but I didn’t care. I knew he was waiting for the next big disaster to strike so that he could tell me that he had been right all along. Oh…and it happened.